


A Swiftlyenormous Light

by sansapotter



Category: Lumatere Chronicles - Melina Marchetta
Genre: F/M, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-25 11:14:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3808291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sansapotter/pseuds/sansapotter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the seventh day she caught sight of them from the direction of Alonso. Jorja stilled her hands as they nervously darted to her hair, and skirts. He couldn’t have possibly known she would be there, but he arrived at her side faster than the others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Swiftlyenormous Light

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first contribution to this fandom. It's meant to take place between the final chapter and epilogue.

Phaedra waited in the Valley every day, riding down with Jory in the mornings, only to be brought back up at night for the last six days. She stayed with Lucian’s Yata, while she waited for him to return from Charyn. The caves were filling, every day more people arrived and Phaedra continued to dedicate her to time to them. 

On the seventh day she caught sight of them from the direction of Alonso. Jorja stilled her hands as they nervously darted to her hair, and skirts. He couldn’t have possibly known she would be there, but he arrived at her side faster than the others. He dismounted and was beside her before she could say a word grabbing hold of her, and pressing a kiss to her lips. She greeted the Queen’s Consort, and Perri when they arrived, minutes later. 

While they stayed and said their parting words Finnikin declined staying at the Mountain that evening. “We’ll come to see your Yata soon,” Finnikin said before they parted ways. Phaedra could tell Lucian was pleased that such a small party rode up the mountain. He asked her questions about the Valley but gave her no hint to the result of the journey he had been on.

Lucian lifted her from the horse easily, and she waited outside of the stable while he handed it off to one of the lads. He was tired, she felt him slumping against her as they made their way up the mountain. The weight of him was still unfamiliar, but she felt herself relaxing into him nonetheless. Unfamiliar, but safe. 

Phaedra set their pace to the cottage. All the way up on the mountain it was colder than it was in the Valley below, especially in the dark. He scrubbed his hands down his face, “did you get there in time?” 

“We did,” he met her eyes, smiling.

“And?” She pressed.

“And?” He teased.

“Were you successful?” She stopped walking.

He huffed at their halt. She wasn’t moving, she fixed him with a stubborn stare. “We were successful, more than I expected. Can we go home now?” He wrapped an arm around her urging her on. 

“What do you mean?” She wondered, continuing to walk to their home. “More successful than you expected.”

“We rode back with your father,” he said. “He seemed closer to forgiveness when we parted ways.” 

“I’ve been writing a letter for him,” she said. “I’ll finish it in the morning, I want to make sure my words are right,” she felt the question, and before he asked she continued. “It wouldn’t get to Alonso tonight if I wrote it sooner,” Phaedra reasoned. They’d reached the cottage by then and she turned to smile at him only to catch his gaze, intense, one she felt in her belly. Before she could turn the handle Lucian lifted her, pressing her against the door so he could rest his forehead against hers. 

“I missed you,” and before she could respond he turned the door handle and carried her into their home. 

He didn't bother discarding his fleece before setting her on the table and kissing her fervently. He held the back of her head in his hand, drawing her close, as he stood in the cradle of her hips. She’d never been kissed like that before, with such longing and intensity. He eased her back against the table, hand flat against the small of her back.

It was only when his lips left hers that she realized just how exposed they really were. The moonlight cast a glow from the uncovered window. He kissed the hinge of her jaw, the soft skin behind her ear, she shivered but she found herself murmuring for him to stop. Quickly he pulled away, moving farther from her than she intended, and only then did she realize how cold it was in the cottage, they hadn't even built a fire. 

She pushed her self up, breathless; Lucian’s own breath was heavy when it fogged before their faces, an arms reach away. She was sure once the room was lit her face would be red from more than the cold. His apologies were quick, heartfelt words that confused her.

"I only meant anyone could see us," she said softly, smoothing her thumb across his temple.Her eyes darted to the open shutters. Pleased as she was that her husband returned, she didn’t think she could couple with him on this table.

His face softened before the laughter came. He ducked to kiss the crown of her head, removing his fleece and making his way to the ashes of the fire. Phaedra watched him move easily around the little kitchen, “I’ve had you in a nest of ferns.” He said with a teasing grin, “and you’re worried that anyone would see us here.” 

She started to laugh as well, and the sound hit the walls, as the fire warmed the room. He pushed the coat from her shoulders; she tipped her head back and he kissed her again, still smiling. She held his face between her hands, fisting his hair, keeping him close. Lucian’s hands pulled her to the edge of the table, and she could feel him pressed against her through the layers of her dress.

He tugged her gloves off, eyes dark with desire; pressing a kiss to her palm he tried to make out the scars that blended into the creases there. “I’m sorry,” he said tracing his finger across the scar where the Queen’s sword had cut her. 

“You only did what you thought was right.” She consoled. Then he noticed the one on her cheek, and suddenly he was gone and the she missed his touch. “You can hardly see it,” she said softly wishing he would come back.

“I wish I could take it back.” He said into the window’s ledge. His knuckles went white from his grip, and she wondered how often he thought about that night. 

“You were protecting your Queen, just as I was protecting mine.” 

She moved from the table to stand behind him, wrapping her arms around his middle, cheek pressed to his spine. He slouched against her, and she could feel the steady rise and fall of his chest. She could hear his heartbeat, a steady tattoo against her cheek; she liked that it always seemed to match her own.

His hand covered hers when it slid up to press against his chest. She couldn’t forget how big his hands were, how coarse they were against hers; she hadn’t forgotten how gently he touched her, the naked admiration in his eyes when he looked at her. She let herself remember that gaze when she was in her own bed at the castle, and the memory led her to tears; tears that eventually turned to a homesickness more intense than she’d ever felt before. Not just a longing for a place, but a person. 

“We should go to bed,” she said and he hummed, pleased with the idea. 

“I like the sound of that,” Lucian’s voice was a deep rumble as palpable as his heartbeat, suggestive. He pulled the shutters closed, and she released him from her grasp.

“You’re exhausted,” Phaedra laughed walking toward the bedroom. She thought of the nights she spent in Tesadora’s tent, _you’re too tired to be of any use to me tonight._ She wondered if there would ever be a time she could say such a thing and mean it. Tesadora didn’t mean the words that night, she remembered. Perhaps Phaedra would always seek out the closeness above all other comforts. Lucian pulled his tunic off at the neck, and she wanted to trace the contours of his back as she had his chest, but she focused on unlacing her dress. His bed was large, but there was still little room when he settled into it. 

“What is it?”

“I just worry there isn’t space for me,” She said moving to put her dress in her trunk. He considered her, then the edge of the bed before turning onto his side. She rested her head on the pillow beside his; he pulled her tight to him, but he made no move against her. 

She couldn't help the worry that came from this marriage bed. She cried in this bed, spent many a night alone in this bed, worried in this bed. Unbidden she could hear Ginny’s spiteful tone in the cave. Pressing her face into the pillow she tried to shake the thought, _go away you weren’t invited here_. It was strange, to be this nervous when she trusted him so much. His thumb traced circles at the base of her ribs.

"I wish we could go back to the first night," Lucian said into the crease of her neck, gruff and quiet like he might not have meant for her to hear it. The tenor of it made her shiver with delight, but she stayed with her back to him. They’d never discussed that night, and she needed to allow him the space to do so.

“What would you change?” She wondered softly, catching the hand that traced her belly. He huffed a laugh that seemed to ask where to start? Then he was quiet and she thought the conversation was over. 

“I should have told you my fa died before he could tell me about you.” He said finally, “that I didn’t know why he made the arrangement with your father, but he always had a reason, and he was always right.” She tried to focus on the way their hands fit together, if she didn’t she might start to cry at the reverence in his voice when he talked about his father. 

“Would it have been different if you knew why?”

“Yes,” he said firmly. “It would have been, I never would have sent you away in the first place.”

“You couldn’t keep me out of the Valley,” she reasoned. “I always would have found my way there.”

“If I’d done things differently that first night at least you would have come home every night.” He tipped his head so he could kiss her temple. She shifted in his arms, turning so she faced him. Phaedra ran her thumb across the swell of his lip, his eyes drifted shut at the movement.

“What else?”

“I should have looked at you,” he said, and that intense stare was back. If he had looked at her thus the night they were first married surely she would have combusted. She forced herself to meet his eyes, confronting his ready emotions with her own timid ones. “Eyes like the heavens, that’s what people used to say about eyes like yours, would have told you that.” 

“I would have liked that,” Phaedra said brushing her nose against his. “I might like hearing it now more.”

“Is that so?” he grinned. She was taken aback by that smile; It was the sort of look she would have expected from a Mont lad, not their leader. It reminded her of the time they had lost; she so rarely got to see him look his age. He carried the weight of the mountain on his shoulders; she promised herself she would draw that look out of him often. ”Wouldn’t you have preferred a kinder man sharing your bed?”

“I prefer a man who loves me,” Phaedra said smiling shyly. He kissed her firmly, thumb running across her jawline. “I wouldn’t change anything,” she murmured against his lips. “All of those things led us here.” 

He bared her into the bed, and though she hadn’t expected him to, he still tried to make up for that night. His touch was eager, using his mouth, as well as his hands to draw sounds from her. Lips smoothing over her collarbone, while his fingers traced over that secret part of her that had her emitting shaky sighs that turned into gasps. 

There was urgency in his movements when he was finally within her. Phaedra’s nails dug into his shoulders, his desire for her only making her heart race more. Lucian was whispering sweet words, things that made her flush both with pleasure and from embarrassment. 

Later when their breathing finally evened, he gathered her to his chest. She could see the telltale signs of dawn through the shutters. “You aren’t going to get much sleep,” she said softly.

“I wouldn’t change a thing,” he winked drawing her up so he could kiss her, and as she fell asleep she hoped each night she would feel as loved as she did now.

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully I will be posting more around these parts, and I'm also on [tumblr](http://www.sansapotter.tumblr.com).
> 
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> title from _when i have thought of you somewhat too_ by EE Cummings


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